There
is so much disinformation about the Benghazi incident that it will be
impossible to get an accurate picture of what really transpired during the
attack. This has led to all kinds
of conspiracy theories. Informed
commentators frequently refer to the compound in Benghazi as a consulate. It was not a consulate and that is
significant. There are certain
requirements for a consulate that the compound did not meet.
Only
the President has “cross-border authority.” The President had a full day planned for September 12 and
did not want to be disturbed. Can you
imagine how it would go at his campaign stop in Las Vegas if he did not get a
full night’s sleep. According to
Senator Lindsey Graham the President did
not even bother to call any government officials in Libya until long after the
attack. He had no problem in
granting the military authority to cross the border to attack Qadaffi. The media has shown a curious lack of
interest in what he was doing during the attack.
Much
has been made of the “stand down” order.
A CIA spokesman, Ryan Trapani, has announced that there was no “stand
down” order. This brings to mind a
quote from Otto von Bismarck: “Nothing is proven until it is officially
denied."
Ambassador
Stevens was more than likely CIA.
He met with the Turkish Consul General immediately prior to the
attack. He was in Benghazi to
oversee the arms collected by
the CIA
that were shipped to Syrian rebels through Turkey.
Security
in Libya was reduced prior to the attack in spite of Steven’s requests. The movie could have stressed Steven’s
concerns. The lack of security was
Bush’s fault, or maybe the Republicans who cut security spending. However, the State Department still has
enough money to purchase $5 million worth of crystal
from a company owned by a campaign contributor. Relying on the indigenous population for security,
specifically the February 17 Martyrs Brigade, seems unwise: something like a
bank hiring the Barrow/Parker Bank Security Company.
One
thing the movie pointed out was the sophisticated video communications between
the contractors and their families.
Was the government video equipment less sophisticated than the
contractors? Could people in
Washington view events in Benghazi as they were happening through the cameras
in the compound? If this is the
case I suggest they hire a consultant.
Probably any 13 year old girl could fill them in.
The
movie shows that there was a conscious effort to destroy classified material at
the CIA annex. Ambassador Stevens
did not have this opportunity. He
undoubtedly had classified material at the compound. The first people to have access to any classified material
were the attackers. Pity the
people who had relations with the U.S. and did not want their identities
known. Three days after the attack
a CNN reporter found the ambassador’s
diary
in the “largely unsecured” compound. The FBI sent a team to the compound two
weeks after the attack.
Understandably they did not spend much time there. A Washington Post
reporter found “sensitive document” only “loosely secured” in the wreckage
of the U.S. mission over three weeks after the attack. A television station in the United Arab
Emirates, Alaan TV, reported in
November that documents written by US consulate staff in Benghazi were found in
the “Tactical Operations Facility” of the compound.
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